METHODOLOGY OF RESISTANCE TESTING AND BREEDING AGAINST FUSARIUM HEAD BLIGHT IN WHEAT AND RESULTS OF THE SELECTION

The FHB is a disease that appears irregularly in most wheat producing area. Therefore artificial inoculation tests are needed to breed effec tively for resistance. It is easy to produce symptoms under artificial inoculation conditions. However, their meaning is often not clear. Ma ny possible methodical problems should be considered to have a data ba sis for solid conclusions., High level of resistance in winter wheat c an be achieved by using spring wheat sources or winter wheat genotypes . Our program has breeding results in both directions. It is not enoug h to determine only the FHB reaction. Yield, kernel infection and DON response should also be considered. They can deliver additional inform ation on the nature of resistance, as tolerance, DON resistance or ker nel infection resistance that are of high importance to choose the bes t of the mostly susceptible commercial genotypes grown now on millions of hectares.